NEW DELHI: Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Sunday acknowledged that there were lapses in “security intelligence” in the Pahalgam terror attack but emphasised “main focus should be on the bigger picture.”
Speaking to news agency ANI, the Thiruvananthapuram MP said, “Obviously, there was no full proof intelligence. There were failures, I agree, but that should not be our main focus right now.”
“No country can ever have a foolproof 100% intelligence,” he added.
The Pahalgam terror attack on April 22 killed 26 people, mostly tourists, after terrorists targeted Baisaran, a tourist spot in south Kashmir.
Tharoor further drew parallel with Israel, noting that “even the world’s best intelligence services were caught off guard on October 7.”
“We have got the example of Israel, the world’s best intelligence services according to everybody, which were taken by surprise on October 7, just two years ago. It seems to me, just as Israel is waiting till the end of the war before they demand accountability,” the Congress MP said.
“Similarly, I think we too should see the present crisis through and then demand accountability from the government,” he continued.
“We will never know about the various terror attacks that were successfully thwarted. We only get to know about the ones that we failed to thwart. This is normal in any nation,” he added.
India has implemented robust measures against Pakistan regarding its involvement in cross-border terrorism as border tensions persist.
Officials have assured that severe consequences await both the perpetrators and planners of the Pahalgam terror attack.
The attack was one of the worst in the Valley since the 2019 Pulwama attack, where 40 CRPF jawans were killed.